- In this Tool
- Tool Overview
- How To Use This Tool
- Example Scenarios
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Youth
The ABCs of CBT
Tool Overview
Each of us can control and are responsible for our own thoughts and behaviours. The ABC Model is a good way of understanding how we can help change our feelings and behaviour by challenging our thinking. It helps us uncover beliefs that are not helping us /contributing to the behaviour we are trying to change.
Your beliefs are made up of your self talk and the way you see life through your own eyes. So in terms of the things that ‘trigger’ you to ‘use’ you are probably having a talk about it in your own mind. You may not even know this is happening.
In the ABC tool, the A is the activating event or trigger is a situation or event that will normally set off an urge to use or engage in the behaviour you’re trying to change.
The ABC Tool enables us to look at the thoughts underlying our behaviours. Once we know what they are we can change them and therefore change our behaviour.
The process is simple. The key is to challenge our thinking. Is what we believe really true? Do I HAVE to do that, will they REALLY think that of me if I don’t do that etc…
Then we need to practice the new thoughts and keep choosing a different action as a result.
How To Use This Tool
Work through the ABC worksheet to identify the thoughts that trigger the behaviour you want to change and then brainstorm some new thoughts you could try out.
Helpful Links
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Tool Overview
The ABC Model is a good way of understanding how we can help change our feelings and behaviour by challenging our thinking.
When to Use This Tool
The ABC Model is a good way of understanding how we can help change our feelings and behaviour by challenging our thinking. It helps us uncover beliefs that are not helping us /contributing to the behaviour we are trying to change.
This exercise may be done in the group setting but can also be very useful for participants to look at between meetings.
How To Use This Tool
When working with urges: To analyze a lapse/relapse or to develop coping statements for an anticipated lapse/relapse.
In the event of a lapse, the question to ask is not “What made me do that”, but rather, “How did I talk myself into it?” It is not the urge (A) that causes the lapse (C). It is our beliefs (B); our irrational self-talk.With emotional upset:
The ABC Model can also be used to work with emotional upset or frustrations that may occur at any point in the recovery journey. The ABCs allow us to discover our unhelpful beliefs which contribute to emotional upsets. Disputing helps us eliminate our irrational thinking so we can both feel better and do better. In SMART Recovery we teach that we feel the way we think; it’s not unpleasant events that disturb us, it’s the way we think of them. By changing our thinking, we change how we feel.Identifying and Disputing Unhelpful Thinking.
Disputing is a process of challenging the way we think about situations. It’s about trying to look at thoughts more accurately. Disputing unhelpful thinking can help us make more informed decisions about thoughts instead of just acting on them. Balanced thinking leads to effective new beliefs.
